Embracing the Darkness (Prolog - 2)
by Faith Harris
Summary: Xander, Faith, and Spike have returned after three years and they’ve brought a power to Sunnydale that no one could imagine any of them wielding- to fight an evil equally powerful. And they find out discover that sometimes you need to fight pure evil wi
1. "Diary Entries" and "Welcoming Party"

# Title: Embracing Darkness

Author: Faith Harris

Summary: Xander, Faith, and Spike have returned after three years. Notice I love these returning back after (fill in length of time) stories? Well, they're back, and they've brought a power to Sunnydale that no one could imagine any of them wielding- to fight an evil equally powerful. And guess what- Buffy is _pissed_ at all of them. But that doesn't matter when the remaining members of the Scooby gang discover that sometimes you need to fight pure evil with pure darkness (notice I didn't say you have to fight it with pure evil) and this darkness comes with a price…

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel: The Series, or anything associated with the show. Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy own that. I do own all the Hunters- 'cept the Lady (You'll see) and the Characters that are not on either of the aforementioned (oooo…big words) shows, such as Christopher, Leijah, etc.

Distribution: If you ask, you can have. If you put my name on it.

Time: around 2003. I go along with the show until about "Where the Wild Things Are" then I go from there. Well, actually, Xander leaves shortly after that episode, and ADAM was destroyed.

## PROLOG

Xander

What is it? What makes us tick, what makes us feel the slightest amount of love, of pain, of anger, of fear? Is it only one part of us? One part of our soul? Or many different parts? Do the signals ever get confused, mixed, smashed together?

I think I was once able to distinguish these things from one another. But not anymore. The darkness has destroyed that now.

There are so many forms of darkness. There are the ones that scare you, which you avoid, and run from, your heart racing, and your face white. Those types of darknesses I've experienced all my life- starting with my father.

There is the type of darkness that is a nightmare, that just repeats itself, the same thing, but different people, time and time again, the darkness that you convinced yourself as a child that if you just lay with your head under the covers and laid very still, it would go away. I've seen that darkness too, I've fought it, along with Slayer, and others, since I was in high school. I've confronted it, and it no longer frightens me. I've become stronger, even after I left the Slayer. And I found others who confronted the darkness.

Then there is the type of Darkness that destroyed my ability to differentiate between love, pain, anger, and fear. It is the kind of darkness that doesn't scare you. It terrifies you, makes you paralyzed with fear. But you still go to it for comfort. You still run to it, let it embrace you, change you.

And you forget all else.

That's what she is to me. Faith.

It's not just her share of the darkness that's changed me. I suppose that the other Hunters had something to do with it. After all, they are like brothers and sisters to me, and The Lady Of the Night is like a mother.

There is no father. That place is reserved for one Rupert Giles, the man who was more of a father than my father was.

I shouldn't have left, I suppose. But I have returned. Not to make things right. But to bring my own darkness and kill the darkness that once scared me.

This may make no sense now, but it will.

Oh, it will.

But you may not like it.

Willow

I did a spell today. The searching spell I've always done since that night Xander disappeared. I know that Giles has always said it was pointless, with a tear in his eye, but I still try. He has given up.

Speaking of giving up, Buffy has too. When she speaks of him- which is rare- she mad at him. She used to be really sad, and bring up memories of things that had happened. But now she says that he was an idiot to leave, and if he died…he deserved it. And she deludes herself now, saying that he was never that good of a friend anyway. That he was never there for us anyway.

Which is a lie. We were never there.

But back to the point. I did the spell today, and I found something. I felt his energy. I didn't see an image at all, but I felt him, heard him whispering in my ear, "Willloooooooooww, soon." Goddess, what does that mean?

I'm scared though. It was him. It was his energy. He wasn't possessed, or controlled. But he sounded- not like himself.

Cold.

Cruel.

Empty.

I'm so scared. What does it mean? Oh Goddess help me, what does it mean?

Christopher

I'm worried. They've been acting weird since we entered Sunnydale. Faith has gotten quiet, real quiet. She only speaks to Xander and Spike, and even then, it's in whispers, as if someone's listening in. she's hiding something about her time here. I feel it.

I don't need to read her mind to know. I guess I can read her mind, but I feel like I'm violating her. I've never had to dig into her head before. I've never wanted to either.

Usually, I'm the one people need a mind reader for.

Spike isn't much different. He doesn't speak much, and smokes even more than he did before Leijah got him to quit. And the only words that he says are about how the Slayer there is going to have his head.

I wouldn't blame her. He did try to kill her and all she knew.

Xander is suddenly in Boss mode. I mean, he's the leader- aside from the Lady-, so it shouldn't be surprising. But he never just barked out orders before. He doesn't even help me and Andarnis play tricks on anyone anymore. It's really scary.

I know that they have reasons to worry. I would be worried to, if it wasn't for the fact that all the people I knew in Sunnydale are dead. Long gone and dead.

But I'm scared for them

Buffy

Oh dear lord. I thought I was over it. I thought I was over him. Over Xander's leaving. That dork left us here without a word, without a note. I shouldn't care anymore.

But am I going insane now?

I saw him today. I was patrolling. I was fighting a vamp, and it just dusted. I looked at the place it stood, and right there was Xander, holding a stake. He smiled evilly at me, a smile that reminded me of when Faith had been evil and she used to smile. He was wearing all black= black jeans, black tee shirt, black combat boots, and a black leather jacket. He dropped the stake on the ground in front of me. And then he just walked away.

I was coming out of my daze, when all of a sudden, a mist wrapped around him, thick and black. And then he disappeared. Was it even him? I wish I knew.

Faith

We're back.

# PART ONE: WELCOMING PARTY

Spike sat down at the desk, putting his feet up on the table, cigarette in his hand. He glared at Christopher, whose face was hidden behind an Anne Rice book. Spike stayed there, and started to tap out a beat on the armrest of the chair.

"I know you're there," Chris said, not putting down the book, "And I wish you would go away." Spike grinned, and sat straight up.

"Come on, mate, you know you love me." Chris glared at him, before putting the book down.

"What the hell do you want, Spike?"

"I want to go out. As in out the factory. To eat." Spike said, "And Xander thinks that I can't go out without someone to protect me from_ the slayer_" Chris got up.

"Well, you came to me because?" he asked.

"Cause you can bloody read her mind and then control it!" He said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Which it was. Chris sighed. He didn't like Spike, and he had tried to make that perfectly clear. But he couldn't have him dead. Even though they both wanted to find each other in a ditch somewhere, they worked best together. It might have been because they both enjoyed the killing part of the job description.

Chris sighed again, and Spike knew he was going to go. He stood, and straightened his jacket. Then he looked at Chris out from the corner of his eye, the evil smile still there.

"Who knows, Killer," Spike started, using his nickname for Chris, "maybe you'll get a little blood on your hands tonight." Chris laughed, imagining holding his gun in someone's face again.

"Sorry, we're on the good side, remember?" He reminded Spike, who let out a groan and said, "Just because we're the New Generation of White Hats doesn't mean you should give up the kill completely. You got a talent, and it takes practice to get better at it."

"I'll wait until we have to torture an answer out of demon to have fun, Spike. I'm not gonna hear m'lady screaming cause I felt the urge to blow somebody's head off." Chris said, putting on his bubble jacket that had been lying on the table. Along with his gun, pocketknife, and a stake. Spike eyed the gun, eyebrow raised.

"You say you've stopped killing," he mused, "But I smell blood on that knife. You washed it off, but…" Chris moved faster than Spike had realized he was capable of moving. Spike soon found himself pinned on the wall, Chris holding him with one hand by his neck. Spike's cigarette fell on the floor. Chris stomped it out. Then his eyes clouded, and turned completely black. Spike's eyes grew wide. Even he didn't usually get Chris this pissed.

"If you spill this to anyone," Chris growled, and his voice came out deep and raspy, "I will rip apart every piece of organ you have left after I empty a clip in your stomach and head. And then I won't even need the stake to drive into your heart. Got it?" Spike shook his head quickly. Chris dropped him, and Spike fell on the floor. After he resumed his composure, and Chris's eyes had turned back to their normal brown, he asked, "So, was it a good kill?" Chris shut his eyes, smiling, nodding.

"It was great." He murmured, "A sweet little chick, vulnerable, weak, about 18. Blonde, brown eyes. Tortured her too, with the pocketknife, before shooting. She screamed too. A real, terrified scream. I didn't even have to ask for that." He opened his eyes, "Why do people try so hard not to scream these days? Do they think that'll stop them from dying?" Spike shrugged.

"You kill without your weird eyes. I kill with my face on." Spike said, "I don't have to ask for it. They do it naturally." Chris rolled his eyes.

"Showoff." He snorted, while putting his gun in the holster hidden on his belt, under his shirt and his jacket. The pocketknife went in a small pocket hidden on the inside of his boot, and the stake inside an inside pocket. Spike crossed his arms.

"Well, hurry it up." He said impatiently. Chris ignored him, and walked out the room. Spike came out after him.

"Hey, mate, wait!" he yelled after him. Chris ignored him and continued to walk. He started to walk down the steps, and decided to wait for Spike to catch up. Spike came up to him, glaring. Chris grinned and walked downstairs.

"Watch it Spike." Leijah said as Spike ran straight into her. He moved away, but not before squeezing her rear. Leijah gave him the finger, and Spike faked offense. Chris rolled his eyes again. Leijah and Spike made him sick. All they ever did was feel on each other and bicker. According to Xander, they were worse than him and his old girlfriend Cordelia.

All Chris knew was that they made him want to hurl.

Leijah and Spike continued to fondle, until Chris tapped him on the shoulder.

"Mmmm?" Spike asked.

"Blood." Chris reminded him. Spike quickly pried himself away from Leijah, who acted angry.

"Well, looks like you'll be sleeping in your own room tonight." She yelled as Spike followed Chris out.

"Because you'll be there too, love!" Spike retorted. Chris shook his head and sighed before leaving the factory.

***

"So you really saw him?" Willow asked excitedly, "I knew he was here, I knew it! I felt him here when I did the spell, I did!" Buffy looked at Willow skeptically as she watched her happy friend. She almost wished she hadn't told her.

"We can't get our hopes up, Will." She said warily, "He did look…different. It could be that he's possessed or something." Willow shook her head.

"No. I felt it." She insisted. She looked at Buffy's face and frowned. "You think that I'm just imagining this because I want him back, don't you?" Buffy shook her head.

"I don't know, Will. I just don't think we should- oh my god." Buffy looked past Willow.

"Is it Xander?" she asked hopefully. Buffy shook her head no, distracted. She held her stake tighter. Willow turned to face what Buffy was seeing. She gasped, fear invading all parts of her mind.

Faith.

Buffy sped up, walking in Faith's direction. Faith was sitting next to a grave, watching it. Buffy walked straight in front of her. Faith looked up, startled.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Buffy demanded to know, "What, you weren't done torturing us?" Faith stood up, scrambling. She pointed to the grave.

"Look B, I was told to patrol, all right?" she said. Buffy glared.

"I'm sure you were." Buffy snorted, "I guess you just wanted to wait here and then wait until we came by, uh?"

"B, I didn't…" Faith looked towards Willow, "Red, I'm, I'm sorry…I…" Willow turned away, and caught movement by a small mausoleum nearby.

"Buffy…" she started. Buffy didn't let her eyes move from Faith.

"Did you come back for Riley?" She snapped, "Well he isn't here, so you can just-" a gun that was now pointing at the side of her head cut Buffy off. Faith looked worriedly at the person who wielded the gun. Willow gasped, and a cold hand covered her mouth.

"Shhhh, _Red_" came the familiar whisper. Willow's eyes went wide as she realized it was Spike.

"Now, Faith, was the bimbo Slayer bothering you?" Came the deep voice of the person with the gun.

"Chris, don't." Faith said, "Put the gun down. I know you're trigger happy, but we're not here to kill any humans." Chris grumbled and put the gun back in its holster. Buffy quickly punched him, and was about to do more, when Faith grabbed her arm.

"No one dies now." She said. Buffy laughed.

"Since when did you start caring whether or not I kill someone?" Buffy said. Willow made a muffled noise, and Buffy was prepared to stake Spike.

"Spike, let go of the girl." Chris commanded. Spike stepped back, letting go. Willow stood next to Buffy.

"Looks like Spike and Faith found a new friend to help kill us." Buffy quipped.

"If I wanted to, Slayer," Chris said nonchalantly, "I could have you and the red-headed chick there kill each other." Willow looked at him, and watched in shock as his eyes changed from normal brown, to complete black orbs. He was smiling, and Willow felt the power radiate off of him. She had gotten good at that over the past few years.

"You're scaring the bloody hell out of her mate." Spike interjected, "They think we're here to kill them, and your not making it any better."

"Oops." Chris said sarcastically, "My bad." Spike laughed. Willow was very confused.

"Buffy, they're not trying to kill us." Willow squeaked, "That's a good thing- and oh, isn't it interesting that Faith and Spike show up when you saw Xander?" Chris looked at them, surprised.

"He showed himself already? Didn't think he would do that. Thought he'd think of laying low. Idiot." He shrugged.

"You three are with him?" Buffy screamed, "I can't believe this! Xander would never, ever, never-" Faith looked at her.

"Hang out with three ex-murderers?" Faith said, "Well, guess what, B, things change. People change. We've changed. And so has Xander. So what, B? Red? Were you two planning to exact revenge or something? Because I have other things to do." Buffy slammed her into a tree.

"Don't tempt me Faith, because I will…"

"You won't do anything." Spike moaned, "Because we know where Xander is, and if you kill anyone of us, especially her, he will never come near you again." Buffy let Faith go.

"You take us to Xander, and we don't have a reason to kill any of you." Buffy said.

"We don't take you to him, but we arrange a meeting. Five of us- one of whom is Xander- meet with you guys, wherever you want." Chris stated. Buffy looked like she was going to say 'forget it', but she looked at Willow, and she looked so hopeful that she nodded.

"Fine. Tomorrow, 9:00pm, Giles's house. Xander should know the way." She said. And without another word, she left. Willow strayed behind for a moment.

"Xander is…good? Happy?" she asked. Faith looked at her.

"Red, me and him are…" She started. Willow's eyes became pools.

"Involved?" she filled in, "Whoa, I guess you were right…a lot has changed. But, how is he?"

"He's fine now. He's been talking about seeing you guys since before we got here." Faith answered. Willow nodded, smiling, before going off with Buffy. Chris pulled out his knife and sat on the ground.

"Can I kill the Slayer? It'd be interesting to see how long it would take to make her scream." Chris commented.

"Try to kill her boyfriend." Spike said.

"Really? Cool." Chris said. Faith looked at both of them and they shut up.

"Now, we have to tell Xander we arranged a meeting with them. Without asking him first." Faith said. Spike waved his hand.

"No problem. He won't even give."

***

"You did what!" Xander yelled. Spike slumped down in his seat.

"It wasn't me, really, it was more of Chris doing the talking at that point…." He babbled. Xander proceeded to go to the wall and start banging his head against the wall.

"I'm not ready to talk to them, I can't." He started to chant. Chris swallowed. Xander didn't usual get like this. There was reason to be scared. Faith, he saw, was glaring at Spike. _He won't even give,_ he had said. Chris made a mental note to give Spike a few bullets in his kneecaps later on.

Xander started to pace. What was he going to say to any of them? He could guess their reactions. Buffy would be psychotic. Willow would be happy. Giles would be happy, but on guard, thinking it probably wasn't him. Riley would hate him, as always, which was fine by him. Anya would be angry he was with someone else. Tara would be confused about why he was back and why he had so much energy stored inside him.

Why did the Powers that Be hate him so very much? Had he done something to deserve this? He was a good guy. A slightly wild good guy, but a good guy nonetheless.

Why?

Xander sat down finally. Everyone watched him, nervous. Xander leaned back in his chair.

"Five of us, you said?" Xander asked Spike.

"Yeah. At the Watcher's place." Spike said.

"Still Giles?" Xander asked.

"Yes." Faith answered. Xander nodded to himself.

"So it'll be us and…Eric."

"Hell no." Chris said, "He's not coming with us." Xander glanced at Chris.

"Who would you bring? Rachel?" Xander said, talking about the girl that Chris was currently sleeping with. Chris shook his head no.

"I'll regret this, but Leijah should come." He said after a moment, "She's nice. She and that red-head, Willow, could get along." Xander nodded in agreement.

"Spike, get Leijah." Xander ordered. Spike got up.

"Keeps talking to me like I'm some puppy to be ordered around…" Spike began to rant to himself.

"Oh yeah…Spike?" Chris piped up before Spike left. Spike turned.

"What is it?" he asked. Chris pulled out his gun and shot Spike in the arm. Spike held the arm and for a second he nearly collapsed from the pain and how deep the bullet had went.

"Why the bloody hell did you do that?" he cried. Chris shrugged.

It wasn't the kneecaps, but it would do.

"So guys," Xander said, standing up, "looks like there's gonna be a gathering. Chris?"

"Yup?" he said.

"Don't show off your gun."

PART TWO: ENTER THE HUNTERS

Giles was tired of watching Willow pace anxiously around his house. Buffy was on the stairs, her eyes following Willow's feet. To the bookshelf. To Giles's stool. To the fireplace. Back again.

"Willow, could you please sit down. It's rather unnerving, watching you pace." Giles proclaimed. Willow stood still.

"Sorry, it's just, like, Xander's back, he's being of the back, in the most back sense of the word!" Tara walked over and slipped her hand into Willow's. It seemed to have an instant calming affect. Willow took a breath, and she sat down. Tara did the same.

"Giles, he's with Faith and Spike." Buffy said, "And there was a guy that Faith specifically called a murderer."

"Ex-murderer." Willow corrected. Giles removed his glasses to clean them.

"If it is true, in fact, that this young man was reformed, then perhaps Xander had some part in reforming him. If not…Xander might be very different from when we knew him." Giles declared.

"He didn't seem very reformed when he was sticking a gun in my face." Buffy mumbled.

"But him and Faith were friends. He was protecting her." Willow countered. Buffy turned to her.

"Will, you can't keep making excuses for his 'friends'. They're not safe people, and we have to face that fact.". Willow frowned, and nodded. Just then there was a knock on the door. Everyone looked at each other before Giles got up to open the door. Everyone stood up, tensed and hopeful.

There Xander stood, and the door, wearing a pair of black leather pants, and black muscle shirt, and a leather jacket. He had on a pair of sunglasses and his hair was the length it had been when Buffy had first met him. He had his arm around Faith's waist. Faith wore a pair of jeans and a white tee. Behind them, they saw Spike in his usual attire, Chris with a pair of khakis, a gray tee shirt, and his bubble jacket, and a girl with long dyed red hair that wore a long maroon skirt and a matching tube shirt. The Scooby gang stepped back. This was not the Xander they knew.

"Giles, hi." Xander said. Giles hugged him.

"We've missed you Xander." He said. Xander grinned lopsided.

"Ditto." He said. Giles moved so Xander and his friends could come in. As they did, Buffy noticed that the upper part of Spike's left arm was bandaged tightly.

"Will, Tara, gimme some hugs." Xander spread his arms out for Tara and Willow and they came, Willow hugging as if for dear life.

"Told you I'd be here soon." Xander whispered in her ear, and she jumped back. Tara stepped back with her. Xander moved to where Buffy was on the steps. She walked down a couple of steps, but made no move to hug him, or even shake his hand. Xander stood at the bottom of the steps for a moment, arms crossed, waiting for Buffy to make the first move. When she made none, he turned to the others.

"You all know Spike and Faith, and Willow and Buffy have had the unpleasant experience of meeting Chris, our personal assassin - by the way, Buffy, he apologizes for nearly shooting you- and this lovely lady is Leijah, our resident hacker and peacemaker. Except when it comes to Spike." Xander introduced everyone. Chris looked confused.

"I'm sorry for that?" he asked. Leijah elbowed him.

"Yes you are. Very sorry." She said. Willow giggled, but stopped once she remembered his eyes from the night before.

"You may all sit, you know." Willow said. Spike sat on Giles's desk chair, Faith on the desk, Leijah sat on the couch, and Chris remained standing along with Xander. Chris had made no motion to take off his jacket, although both Xander and Spike had taken theirs off.

"Assassin?" Buffy asked. Xander nodded.

"Actually, I do mostly torture jobs," Chris corrected, "But occasionally I do assassinations." Giles swallowed nervously.

"Sorry, but I do not understand. Why would you need to assassinate anyone?" he asked.

"Well, we do the whole demon hunter group thing, so if we need to assassinate human trying to work with demon, Killer loves it." Spike explained. Everyone stared at Spike.

"What?" he wondered, lighting another cigarette.

"William…" Leijah warned, and Spike sighed and put the cigarette out. Leijah smiled and blew a kiss.

"God, Lei, don't you guys ever stop?" Faith said. Leijah stuck her tongue out at her. Chris put his hand to his forehead.

"These are the world acclaimed Hunters." He sighed. Giles looked at Chris.

"Did you say the Hunters?" Giles choked out, "The Watcher's Council- when I was employed by them- said that they had disbanded after their Leader died." Leijah shook her head.

"We just went underground. The Lady decided that the Council was too conservative. They tried to control the Hunters, and some of us" Leijah looked pointedly at Chris and Spike, "can't handle authority." Spike smiled at her.

"The Hunters?" Willow said, and then she got excited, "Oh, I read about them. They were like the little society type thing that killed demons. They had even discovered a way to destroy a Hellmouth- but they weren't very nice. They were-"

"Practically evil?" Xander filled in.

"Had a tendency to kill the evil, but not protect the innocent?" Chris added.

"Killers?" Spike said. Willow nodded keeping silent.

Buffy actually got off the steps now and marched over to Xander.

"So this is what you are now? I thought you wanted to protect people? How could you _not_ want to? This is insane, Xander."

"I never said that was me." Xander mumbled. Faith stood up.

"Look, out of all of us, Xander cares the most. He even got Chris to the point of nearly caring, okay? So don't jump him B. He's doing his best." Faith argued. Chris looked down at the floor, swallowing slightly. He didn't like being used as an example.

_This is not my Xander;_ Buffy's thoughts came flooding into Chris's head, un asked for.

_This is not him. He would never join a group with a reputation like this. He wouldn't hang out with psychotic group like this. Especially with Faith. Even he can't believe she's actually changed. People don't just change like that. No one does. And Spike? That soulless bastard. I don't trust any of them._

"You have reason not to." Chris said to Buffy. Buffy looked shocked.

"What?"

"Trust us. You have no reason to trust us." Chris explained. Buffy's eyes grew wide.

"I didn't say that. I thou-" Buffy was at a loss for words. Chris tapped his temple.

"Your thoughts are loud. I didn't try to read them, so don't try to kill me. They floated in my head." Chris explained, tensing up incase Buffy did try something. She looked like she wanted to. Chris didn't blame her. His killing instinct was on overload. He wanted to rip her throat out. He took a breath, reminding himself that Xander wouldn't really appreciate that.

"Now he's reading my thoughts!" Buffy screamed, "Xander, you're hanging out with a murderer who reads minds?"

"And controls them, occasionally." Xander mumbled under his breath. Buffy looked like she was about to responded, but Giles interrupted.

"Did you say that you knew how to close a Hellmouth?" he asked. Leijah nodded.

"It takes a lot of energy. See, it involves finding the local Power demon and killing them to unstabilize the mouth, and then you need to be ready for it to open. And then you use someone's energy to close it for good. We were able to use Chris in New York, but it's not really recommended, unless of course you have a year's supply of tranquilizers." Leijah said. Giles leaned forward.

"Why is that?" he inquired. Spike answered, "He'll go insane from the strain on his mind."

"It opens me to all the thoughts of everyone in Hell. And in Sunnydale, until the point where I can't tell the difference between those thoughts and my own." Chris whispered. He shivered as he remembered the two times. All those thoughts, all the demons' thoughts, melding into one thought in his head: kill. But it wasn't the natural urge he was used to feeling, and could control when necessary. This was something beyond him, something that _wasn't_ him.

"Why can't you use someone else?" Willow asked.

"No one so far has had enough energy stored inside them to close a Hellmouth and live." Leijah explained. Willow nodded in understanding. Buffy bowed her head.

"So it's always gonna be open. Great."

"Actually, the reason we're here is to try to close it. It's not recommended, but still, we've restrained Chris before-" Xander started.

"Barely." Spike interjected.

"I think we can do it again." Xander finished, glaring at Spike.

"What? I think they would want to know if you restrained him and then he got loose." Spike snapped.

"Shut up, _William_." Xander said, and his voice was full of authority. Spike was absolutely silent after that.

Tara watched in wonder as she let herself see everyone's power. Leijah's power was softer, but strong. She was a comforting presence, and she held herself with confidence and pride.

Spike was the same as all vampires: Strong, but dark, with its weak spots in the neck and in the heart.

Chris radiated an unusual power. Tara did not feel it; rather she saw it, smelt it, tasted it. It was blood red, and tasted the same. It was cold, imposing, and scary. Tara shivered. She didn't like it at all.

Xander radiated a power that Tara had only felt while in the midst of a powerful spell. He nearly overwhelmed her with a darkness that was unlike any demon she had ever seen. But, underneath it, he was still Xander.

That was what scared her.

"Xander, are you…" Tara stuttered, "the leader of the group? And that power…where, where did it com-come from?" Xander turned to Tara.

"Not the leader, the Lady is the leader…you guys will probably meet her later. Giles, I think you'll like her." Xander said. Chris laughed.

"Give it up, Xander." He said, "Most of us are more likely to listen to you than the Lady. So you are the leader." Leijah and Spike nodded in agreement. Xander blushed wildly, and Willow giggled.

"The power came from being there in New York. See, the team was housing me, but I wasn't an active part yet. I was research boy, basically. But I ended up being thrown into Chris's way while they were closing that Hellmouth. I was hit by both the energy of the mouth and Chris's energy. I was in a coma for about a week, but, when I woke up, I had taken some of Chris's power." Tara's eyes grew wide.

"You mean that Chris had-d more pow-power once?" She gasped. Buffy blinked; what did Tara see that she didn't? Was she able to see power like Willow had learned to?

Chris nodded, "Used to be able to level a house if I got pissed. I guess it's a good thing I can't do _that_ anymore." Spike stifled laughter. Everyone else looked slightly pale.

"As much as you hate us, B" Faith spoke up suddenly, "We're here to help."

"No one here needs your help, Faith." Buffy snapped.

"You don't seem to get it, Buffy," Leijah said, "Everyone in this room, and possible a few others, are needed to close the Hellmouth. You have no choice but to let us help you. Some of us have…old enemies in the area, and we all need to help each other. I refuse to have any fatalities. On either team." Leijah was standing in front of Buffy at this point. Her beauty and her absolute resolve were intimidating, although Buffy did not want to admit to it. Xander and Chris were smirking. Buffy felt her face turn red with anger. She quit the Council because they gave her too many orders. And now she was going to have to take orders from Xander and his group of killers? She didn't think so.

Giles watched as this all went on. He noticed the way that Spike seemed to follow Xander's orders without argument, and how Chris seemed to look at Buffy with an almost blood thirsty longing. If Giles didn't know better, he would have thought him a vampire. He also noticed how after everything she said, Leijah seemed to look at Spike, almost gloating to him. And Spike seemed to react with love, like he did with Drusilla so very long ago. Faith and Xander seemed to be avoiding each other's eyes.

"Whose this Lady?" Willow asked, to change the topic. Faith's eyes seemed to light up.

"The Lady? She's like, wicked cool." She said, "I mean, she's like the mother that I never had. Or, rather, the good mother I never had. She watches over all us and is so awesome-"

"I think they get the point that she's cool, Faith baby." Xander said, slipping up beside her, "She's like what a Watcher would be if we had a Watcher and they were as cool as you, G-man."

"I've asked you time and time again," Giles said, "Do refrain from calling me that." Xander grinned.

"Got it, G-man." He teased. Giles felt a smile tug at his mouth. Spike slapped his hands together.

"So, when do we get to fight?" he asked. Xander looked up to the ceiling; Spike was hopeless.

"When it's your turn to patrol, Blondie." Faith said, "and we find the Power Demon."

"Which is bloody impossible in this town." Spike mumbled.

"Spike's right." Xander said, "There are enough powerful demons here to make New York look like a piece of cake."

"I'm hungry." Chris announced suddenly. When everyone turned to him, he looked confused, "What did I do? He mentioned cake, I realized I was hungry." Everyone shook his or her heads.

"Look, it's time for us to go, anyway. We'll meet up tomorrow, to patrol. Is that cool with everyone?" Xander asked. Everyone nodded. Giles stood up.

"Xander, thank you." He said.

"For what?" Xander asked, genuinely confused.

"For coming back to us." Willow whispered. Xander smiled, and stood there for a moment after the other Hunters had left. Then he closed the door.

"Welcome to hell." Chris said to him once they were outside. Leijah glanced at him.

"I wish that weren't true." She said. Xander turned.

"Did you get a vision or something?" he asked. Leijah shook her head.

"I don't need a vision to know what we're getting into."


	2. "The First Patrol" and "Willy's, the May...

# Title: Embracing Darkness ( Parts 3-4)

Author: Faith Harris

Summary: Xander, Faith, and Spike have returned after three years. Notice I love these returning back after (fill in length of time) stories? Well, they're back, and they've brought a power to Sunnydale that no one could imagine any of them wielding- to fight an evil equally powerful. And guess what- Buffy is _pissed_ at all of them. But that doesn't matter when the remaining members of the Scooby gang discover that sometimes you need to fight pure evil with pure darkness (notice I didn't say you have to fight it with pure evil) and this darkness comes with a price…

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel: The Series, or anything associated with the show. Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy own that. I do own all the Hunters- 'cept the Lady (You'll see) and the Characters that are not on either of the aforementioned (oooo…big words) shows, such as Christopher, Leijah, etc.

Distribution: If you ask, you can have. If you put my name on it.

Time: around 2003. I go along with the show until about "Where the Wild Things Are" then I go from there. Well, actually, Xander leaves shortly after that episode, and ADAM was destroyed.

PART THREE: THE FIRST PATROL

Buffy, Willow, Anya, Tara, and Giles stood around the mausoleum, looking impatient. The Hunters were late. Buffy decided to walk around and actually patrol while they waited. Giles disagreed.

"Buffy," He explained, "These Hunters are highly trained. And some, as we have seen, are mentally…unstable. They could be here already. I don't think it's safe for you to be alone. For any of us to be alone, for that matter." Buffy rolled her eyes. She _so_ did not need this right now. Giles was starting to pile rules on her again, like when she had first came to Sunnydale. She supposed it was because he was worried, but Buffy was a big girl. She could take care of her self.

"I'll go with her." Anya said unexpectedly, "I need to walk around. Sugar buzz." Buffy sighed. Out of everyone, Anya was the one she least wanted to be stuck in a dangerous situation with. Giles nodded, as if being with Anya would somehow make Buffy safe. If anything, it was the other way around. But she just walked alongside Anya, ignoring her occasional complaints about the heat. Which is what she did most of the time when she had nothing better to talk about.

A vampire jumped out from behind a tree. Buffy automatically kicked it down and when it got up, she punched it. Anya looked frantically for a stake, and once she found it, she stood by until she found an opening. There was none. This vampire was fast, big, and actually smart.

Buffy did a spin-kick, and the vampire dodged it, smacking her in the face. Buffy fell back.

Onto black boots.

***

Willow had placed herself cross-legged on the ground. She looked up into the sky. It wasn't very dark, even though the sun had set hours ago, and the stars surrounded a not yet full moon. It was a very warm night.

"I used to look at the sky a lot." Xander whispered in her ear, coming up from behind her. Willow jumped.

"Xander!" she cried, "Are you planning to do that every time you come near me?" Xander grinned. He wore a pair of jeans and a blue t-shirt with a pair of sneakers.

"Possibly, I haven't decided." He turned to Giles and Tara.

"What's the up?" he said, "Where's the Buffster?" Tara smiled and waved hi.

"Buffy and Anya," Giles explained, "Decided to patrol while we waited." Xander nodded. Faith and Leijah walked over. Leijah wore tight grayish-blue jeans and a black sweatshirt. Faith had on a pair of shorts, a dark red tank top, and a denim jacket was tied around her waist.

"Xander?" Leijah said. Xander turned.

"What?" he asked.

"Chris and Spike decided to go on their own." She reminded him.

"Joy to the world," Xander said sarcastically, "Anyone wanna take bets on who comes back in one piece? I've got dibs on anyone but Spike." Giles, Willow, Tara and Leijah glared at him. Faith rolled her eyes.

"Xand, if you don't get your butt up and find them, I will personally bash your head into the ground. And that's if you're lucky." She said, as sweet as possible. Xander smiled back at her.

"Will, Tara, you guys want to come with?" Xander asked. Willow and Tara glanced at each other, and then nodded. Xander wrapped his arms around Faith for a moment and kissed her on the lips. Faith eventually broke off the kiss, reluctantly.

"Find Buffy and the psychos." She ordered. Xander laughed.

"Fine." He pouted, "Come on then, let's go."

***

"Well, well," Chris said, looking down at Buffy, "Spike, look what we've got here. A Slayer and a Vampire who's kicking her ass." Buffy felt a sinking feeling grow in her stomach. Great, could her luck get any worse?

"And what should we do with this treat, Killer?" Spike said, holding Anya by the neck. Anya responded by both kicking and biting him. Spike jumped back. The vampire that had been attacking Buffy was confused. Who were these people? He decided that it was best for him to leave.

"Now, come on, where ya going?" Chris said, blocking the vampire's path, "We were having fun." Buffy stood up, and got her stake ready. She was decided: if anyone of the people in front of her who weren't Anya came near her, she was going to stake them.

Chris grabbed the vampire by the collar and lifted him up so that even his toes weren't touching the ground. The vampire dangled as Chris held him there. Chris glanced at Spike before throwing the vamp over to him. Spike caught it, and took out a small knife, which he used to stab the vamps stomach.

"Hurts, don't it?" He laughed, and threw the vampire back to Chris, who was ready with his gun in one hand. He shot the vampire in his kneecaps, which caused it to roar in pain. Chris laughed even louder, and Buffy and Anya were forced to watch him and Spike toss the vampire back and forth, shooting and stabbing him, torturing him, really, and not staking him.

That was, of course, until Buffy found and opening and staked it while it was in Chris's hand.

"What the hell is your problem, Slayer?" Chris growled at her. He still was holding his gun tightly in his hand. His eyes were black orbs, and he was breathing hard from the excitement. It had been so long since he had been able to hear _anything_ scream like that. He felt it in his blood, in his mind: the vampire's pain, it's fear that Chris wasn't going to kill him, that he was just going to keep shooting at him.

It was a great feeling, and Buffy Summers had ruined it.

"My problem!" she steamed, "My problem! Oh, I might just have a problem with you letting a vampire dangle around when you could have just staked him." Spike lit a cigarette.

"We were gonna kill him…eventually." He countered. Chris nodded in agreement.

"Sure didn't look like you wanted him dead. Looked like you wanted to hear him scream." Anya pointed out.

"True, but sooner or later we'd get bored." Spike said. Chris snorted.

"Speak for yourself." He said, "I don't get bored doing that. Unless they stop screaming. Then it gets old real fast." Buffy felt a sickening pit grow in her stomach. She started to imagine working with him, and she really didn't like the image.

She made a mental note never to take him to question Willy. Ever.

"I don't like you Slayer." Chris stated. Spike laughed.

"Really? I thought you were in love with her." Spike said sarcastically.

"Well, the feeling's mutual." Buffy snapped. Chris was beginning to calm down. He took long, deep breaths to calm himself. If he had to work with this chick, he wanted to be able to _not_ rip her throat out whenever he felt the urge to.

Spike, Buffy, and Chris- with their superhuman hearing abilities- froze as they heard footsteps. Chris closed his eyes for a moment, concentrating. When he opened his eyes, they were back to normal. Buffy held her stake tighter. Anya was confused, because she couldn't hear anything.

"Voices are familiar." Spike said, "Sounds like…Xander. And Red." Chris nodded.

"But there's three people walking." Chris said.

"Probably Tara." Buffy said, "We would have heard Giles." Sure enough, Xander, Willow, and Tara came walking over. Xander was talking energetically.

"So, Chris was completely wasted, and of course, Spike thought that since he was drunk, he wouldn't have any reaction if Spike tried to bother him. So Spike was trying to act all tough, and suddenly Chris grabbed him by the neck, and started to break it…Spike has never tried anything that stupid _ever_ again." Xander was saying, and Willow giggled imagining Spike hanging helpless in Chris's hand. It was a funny image.

"So, what brings you three here?" Spike asked, ignoring the humiliating story that was just told about him. Xander said hi to Anya and Buffy before responding.

"Well, Leijah and Faith were worried that you guys were going to kill each other. But see, I knew you guys weren't going to kill anyone. Okay, actually, _I _thought Spike would be a pile of dust by now." Spike glared at him.

"I'll let you know, I could kick any of these wanker's bloody behinds." As everyone stared at him, he corrected himself, "Everyone but the demon, the Slayer, the witches, and Xander." Tara turned to Chris.

"You're a demon?" she asked.

"Well, sort of." He said, "I'm a cross-breed. I'm a cross between a vamp, a Kalisak- it's a psychic demon-, and a human. See, vampires can't have children, but a Kalisak demon can use a vampire to impregnate someone else. Therefore, a Kalisak demon's child is always part demon, part vampire, and part something else." Tara nodded. That explained how he had all the power he had.

"Can you walk in Sunlight?" Willow asked, "And what about crosses and stuff?"

"The only vampire traits I have are the strength, speed, reflexes, and the thing about the crosses." He explained. Buffy, wanting to test his theory, threw her cross at him. As a reflex, he grabbed it, but it burned his hand. He dropped it, cursing. His hand was smoking, and when he opened his hand, the burn mark of the cross was obvious.

"Cool." Anya said. Chris glared at her, and looked like he was about to hurt her, but Xander put a hand on his shoulder.

"Killing my friends is definitely not a good thing to try to do. I'll kill you first." Xander reminded him. Chris glared at him, then at Anya, and finally at Buffy. The familiar urge to kill came to him again. He took a deep breath, a concentrated on staying calm.

Xander shuffled nervously. It was pretty clear that his friends were not going to get along.

And this was a bad thing.

"Why, oh why do the Powers that Be hate me so very much?" Xander groaned, looking towards the sky, "Did I _do _something?" Chris and Spike considered this for a moment. Before they could open their mouths, Xander said, "If you answer that question, I swear, I will do something I might regret…wait, I _won't_ regret it." Chris started to mumble to himself. Spike just looked bitter. Xander smiled at Buffy.

"Please don't cause extreme pain to my friends, Buff." Xander asked sweetly. Buffy smiled back.

"If they actually patrol, sure." She replied.

"That was them patrolling." Xander insisted.

"Yeah," Spike said, "_We_ just enjoy patrol." Chris put his hand over Spike's mouth to shut him up. Spike vamped out and bit him. Chris didn't flinch, so Spike continued to suck his blood. Anya and Buffy looked pale.

"You're just going to let him feed off you, aren't you?" Anya said. Chris nodded. After a moment, Spike moved away, wiping the blood from his mouth. Chris held his palm over the ground, letting the blood drip onto the ground with a bored, uninterested look on his face. Xander looked at them, sighing loudly.

"Do they always do that?" Buffy said.

"Yup. Chris doesn't care, because it means he gets free target practice with the gun- using Spike." Xander explained, "But guys, look, we should get back to the others. Andarnis said he would meet us out here, and I don't want Giles to freak and stake him." Chris grinned.

"Be funny as hell though, when he doesn't dust." Spike said. Chris nodded in agreement. Xander put his arms around the girls as they started to walk back to the mausoleum.

***  
  


Giles looked up as Xander and the others walked over. Faith ran up to Xander and gave him a kiss.

"Um, I dragged them back here just in time." Xander said afterwards, "Somebody was going to be dead soon. And I very much doubt it was going to be Buffy or Chris." Leijah looked at Spike and glared, arms crossed. Spike moved over to her, wrapping his arms around her waist so that her face was about an inch from his face.

" 'Ello luv." Spike murmured. Leijah kissed him. Buffy and Anya started to make little gagging noise to get them to stop. Giles tried to remain mature and civilized through all of this, and Xander and his friends were making it hard.

Chris sat down on the top of a tombstone, reloading his gun. He watched the Slayer with mixed feelings. He hated her, he knew that. She was a Slayer, he was part demon, part vampire, and part murderer- it was pretty much expected of him. But he liked watching her. He enjoyed watching people, learning what they do, how they act, everything. And Buffy Summers was no exception. It was obvious that even though Giles tried to be in charge- being the oldest and most responsible- Buffy was used to having her way, and having everyone listen to her. She expected people to listen and follow her lead. Buffy was used to protecting everyone, whether they needed protecting or not.

Well, she was about to be very surprised. Because she wasn't the strongest anymore, and Chris knew that none of the Hunters would listen to her. They would do whatever they felt like they needed to do to get the job done. And Chris was almost hoping that she tried to go against the Lady. Not that the Lady would do anything, but the rest of the Hunters would not be very happy about it though.

Yes, Buffy Summers was going to be in for a big change.

"About searching for the power demon…" Giles began, "We can do research for it during the day, and continue to patrol-" Chris looked up, interested. It wasn't that he wanted to research, but he wanted to get this over with.

"Actually, G-man," Xander interrupted, "We had it planned out like this. It's you, Willow, Leijah, Anya, and possibly Rachel- you don't know her yet- on research. Faith has a few contacts in town that used to work for the mayor oh-so long ago that she was going to check out with Andarnis. Chris, Buffy, and I can check out Willy's and patrol, and Spike and Tara would work on preparing the rituals for the closing. Willow could work on that too, after we kill the power demon, if she wants." Giles blinked. It appeared that Xander and his friends had planned this out completely.

"Who's going to kill the Power Demon?" Tara asked.

"Well, me of course." Buffy said, "I am the Slayer. And Chris isn't going to Willy's. We need to keep him alive for information." Chris growled under his breath.

"Buffy, it's not like the Power demon's a normal 'Slay and party' demon," Leijah explained, "It's going to be pretty powerful."

"It's gonna be like the Master, the Mayor, and ADAM put together." Xander agreed.

"If he was that bad, we would have seen him already." Buffy snorted. Spike rolled his eyes.

"Bloody hell, Slayer. You remember, the more powerful the demon, the more lower demons they have working for him. You probably go up against his bloodylackey's everyday." Willow's eyes went wide at the thought of one demon controlling armies and armies of demons.

"So who _is_ going to kill it?" Anya asked.

"All of us are going to have to work together." Faith said, "All of us."

"And what about Willy?" Buffy said, "Chris can not come."

"I can keep myself from killing him." Chris argued. He childishly stuck his tongue out at Buffy, who responded in kind. Leijah sighed. They were starting to get very immature. She looked towards Xander. It was time for him to start acting in charge.

"Chris, shut up." Xander commanded, his voice full of authority. Chris glared at him, but kept silent. Xander looked at Buffy, slightly annoyed.

"Buffy, Chris is going with you and me to Willy's, got it?" Xander snapped, "And we don't have time for everyone to start arguing. So please, spare me the headache." Buffy looked down, red rushing to her cheeks. She wasn't sure whether it was because of embarrassment or anger.

"Xander! Chris!" a voice came from a little ways away, "Lei! Spike! Where are you guys?" Spike started to wave his arm.

"Over here you bloody idiot! Over here!" he yelled. A young man with blonde- naturally blonde- hair and dark blue eyes walked over. He wore a pair of khakis and a black tee shirt with a red fleece pullover on top. He had a lop-sided grin, one like the normal Xander grin. He looked friendly enough. That, of course, ended when Buffy noticed that he seemed to be best friends with Spike and Chris. Buffy figured that anyone who was buddy-buddy with Chris wasn't anyone she wanted to be around. Except for Xander. And Leijah seemed nice.

"Guys," Chris said to the Scooby Gang, "This is Andarnis. Andarnis, these are the guys. Except for the fact that most of them are girls." Andarnis rolled his eyes, mumbling under his breath about what an idiot Chris was. He shook hands with the whole Scooby Gang, learning their names as he did so.

"What is," Giles asked, "Your talent?"

"He's a vamp." Spike grumbled, "One that was lucky enough to find a potion of some sort that keeps him from being staked" Giles nodded, looking interested.

"How old are you?" Anya asked.

"315." Andarnis answered. Willow's eyes went wide.

"You're older than Angel." When Andarnis looked confused, Faith said, "Angelus." Andarnis nodded in understanding. He sat down next to Willow and Xander.

"So, what 'sup? I thought we were supposed to be patrolling." He said.

"Well, we were," Chris complained, while glaring at Buffy, "But _someone_ just had to come and ruin the fun." Buffy looked offended.

"You were just torturing the dumb vamp." Buffy snapped. Andarnis grinned, then looked at Faith.

"So they've been going at it like this the entire time, uh?" he said. Faith nodded.

"Pretty much." She said. Andarnis laughed.

"Can we start patrolling now?" Leijah said, "Because sitting here isn't going to get us anywhere." Buffy nodded in agreement. Leijah was sensible. Which was more than could be said about the others.

Everyone else seemed to agree with Leijah also. Spike put his hands together.

"Alrighty then. Let's go patrolling."

PART FOUR: WILLY'S, THE NEW MAYOR, AND RESEARCH…

Willy the bartender was washing the counter. He didn't have a lot of time to do that, now that business was booming. Ever since the Slayer stopped coming for information, all the demons and vampires were coming in. And they actually had money now. Life was good.

Except for the fact that Willy had never really wanted to serve to demons. A group of demons had just walked into his bar one day, and he couldn't exactly tell them to leave without getting killed. He actually missed the Slayer coming around. He used to get some decent customers back then.

The door opened. Willy turned, and smiled nervously. In walked the Slayer, with two guys, one that looked fairly familiar. The one that Willy was sure he had never seen came and sat on the counter, right where Willy had just finished scrubbing. The Slayer leaned on the counter, and the other guy sat on one of the stools.

"Slayer," Willy stuttered, "Nice to see you. Long time no see. And you brought…um, you brought…"

"Chris." The one on the counter said.

"Xander." Said the other one. Willy's face broke into a smile as he remembered Xander.

"You're the Slayer's old friend, right?" Willy said, "You've changed. Quieter. You know, I heard a rumor that you spilt town."

"I did. Met some new friends. Called the Hunters…" Xander said casually. Some of the demons began to pay attention as they heard both the Slayer and the Hunters mentioned. Some walked out- the smart ones-, some tried to slink into corners-the stupid ones, and still others started to stand up, ready to confront them. Those were the really stupid ones. Chris eyed them, a smile on his face.

"The Hunters, really?" Willy said, "I was right then. They're still in business. I'm guessing Chris is…" Chris nodded, and Willy continued, "So, what can I get you?"

"Information." Buffy said, "About the local power demon. Know where we can find him…or her?" Willy turned green.

"The Power Demon, uh?" he smattered, "Well, I might know a little something," He stood straighter, trying to act brave, "But why should I spill anything?" Buffy, Chris, and Xander looked like they were thinking very hard about it.

"Because I'm the Slayer and I'll hurt you?"Buffy suggested. Xander put his hand- palm facing upward- casually. A big, black and red ball of mist formed right above his hand.

"Because this will slowly seep into your skin and then painfully burn you from the inside out?" Xander added. Chris pulled out his gun, holding it to Willy's head, Chris's eyes turned completely black. He growled.

"Need I say all the things I can do to torture you _before _I kill you?" he snarled, "I mean, without using all my Kalisak powers…I've had practice torturing people."

"Why don't you just control his mind and make him talk?" Buffy suggested.

"I would, but all the demons in here are making a group mind block. I can't even read yours Slayer." He said, but then added, "Not that I can't do this." And he looked directly at Willy, and Willy felt a huge blast of energy hit him and make him fly into the wall. He wasn't knocked out, but he was in a great deal of pain. Chris smiled, putting his gun away. Xander closed his hand into a fist, making the mist ball disappear. He put his hand down, and then looked at Chris.

"Can we try to keep Willy alive?" he snapped, "It would help." Chris mimicked him as Buffy went to help Willy up. Of course, this involved grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. Willy started to remember the bad part of the Slayer coming.

"Look, I don't know much-" Willy said, holding his hands up.

"What else is new?" Xander commented.

"The local power demon is mainly a shapeshifter," Willy said, "With pretty strong mental abilities. He's underground, but not the sewers. Some demons from the sewers are starting to relocate, talking about going to serve their Lordship. I think he feeds off of Vamps, because actual vamp bodies have been dragged in, that haven't dusted. That's all I know." Chris stared at him.

"Really?" he asked. Willy nodded. Chris jumped off the counter as Xander stood up.

"Thanks Willy." Buffy said, "You've been a real help." Willy shrugged.

"Well, anytime you know? Anytime."

"Um, guys?" Xander turned to Chris and Buffy with a smile on his face, "Looks like we've got company. Of the fighting kind." Buffy turned. About twelve of the demons that had been sitting were now coming near them, some with weapons, some without. They all looked pretty tough, even for the Slayer. She looked at Xander and Chris. Xander was sizing up the competition, as Buffy had. Chris had on his wild, psychotic smile on, and his gun in one hand, and took a stake out of his jacket with the other.

"Well, are we gonna fight?" Chris said. Buffy nodded.

"I'm up for it." She said. One large demon, with a katana, growled. Chris growled back, in perfect imitation.

"You will not live to see his Lordship!" the demon roared. He ran at Buffy, with the sword in the air. Buffy ducked as he slashed at her, and then tripped him, and then backhand punched him. Three other demons- two with knives and the other weaponless- surrounded her. She was fighting well, but getting tired fast.

Three went after Xander, and he quickly started to use magic on them. He repeatedly hit one with fireballs, but it wasn't a vamp- it wasn't dying yet.

Chris decided not to take the defensive. He jumped into the middle of the other five demons and started to shoot at one and use his psychic abilities on another. The one that he was using his powers on was starting to crumple into a fetal position, blasts of pain invading every inch of him. It exploded. Other demons were starting to attack him, and Chris was getting really tired.

"This isn't working!" Chris yelled out to them, "We need to finish them off _now_!" Buffy kicked the demon with the katana.

"Oh, so you don't want to have fun now?" Buffy snapped sarcastically. Chris growled as he ran out of bullets. He had managed to kill two, but those had been the weaker ones. Xander had killed one, and Buffy had killed two. This was not going well at all. They hadn't been prepared for such a big attack.

Chris ducked as one hit him. As he got up, he pulled out the small knife that was hidden in his boot. He stabbed one, and then forced his way into it's mind. That was exhausting, considering the mind block was still up.

He saw flashing images, invading his brain. He saw a cave, then another, then another. One was filled with a huge glowing light, and the other two were completely dark. The demon had went into the one with the light, and strength had been poured into him. Chris heard voices.

_"Do you swear to use your strength to aide his Lordship?"_

_"I do."_

_"Do you swear to rid the world of those that are coming to destroy him? Will you gladly give your life?"_

_"I shall."_

Chris pulled himself out of the demon's mind, but not before getting punched in the face. Chris fell back, losing his grip on his knife. The demon pulled it out, and after wincing for a moment, came at him.

"That's my knife." Chris stated blankly. He hadn't been angry before, but now anger was filling every part of him. He could barely control his own actions, because with the anger, his power started to flow within him. It pulsed and grew as Chris focused his black orbs on the demon with his knife. The demon was about to stab him.

The knife sliced Chris's left arm as the demon was thrown back with ten times the force of what Willy had been thrown back with. Not only did it break the back door, but it was also enough force to kill the demon. Chris turned to the next one that was going to attack him. But then he turned towards Buffy, and saw that the demon with the katana was the only one she had to deal with now. It was still beating her though.

Buffy wasn't sure what happened to the demon, but she realized it started to slow it's attacks, and even when she wasn't hitting it, she was hearing it roar in pain. She used the slow attacks to her advantage and started to fight with renewed energy.

That was, of course, until the demon exploded all over her.

She looked at Chris, who was staring in the spot where the demon had been and realized he had done that. She glanced at Xander, who now was fighting only one demon. And it looked like he was winning, so Buffy went to help Chris with his last two.

Buffy concentrated on one that had picked up a pool stick and was using it has a weapon. The first thing she did was break the stick with a kick, and then punched it dead in the face. She ducked and dodged almost all the hits that were thrown at her, and her hits were simply stronger. Chris wasn't depending on his powers or his weapons anymore. He was using the fact that although him and the demon were about equal in strength, he was still faster. He dodged and punched quickly. To Buffy, he looked like he had been fighting demons like this one his entire life. Buffy saw an opportunity in her own fight and snapped the demon's neck. It crumpled. Chris used a slightly messier way of killing his demon. He punched a hole through its stomach.

They turned, about to help Xander, but he was just killing off his demon. He walked to them, breathing hard, as was Buffy and Chris. He looked at Chris' arm, which was hurt pretty badly.

"What happened?" he asked. Chris' eyes turned back to normal.

"That idiot took my knife." Chris said dryly. Buffy crossed her arms.

"So if you were able to blow up the demons, why didn't you do it in the first place?" she said.

"I wasn't angry enough. Most of my powers depend on me being _really_ pissed. I hadn't been until he stole my knife…where is it, anyway?" Chris started to look around. Buffy noticed he was holding his arm. He walked over to where the back door used to be. He picked up his knife and slipped it back in his boot.

"Okay, we can leave now." Chris said.

"So all those demons worked for the Power Demon?" Buffy asked Xander.

"I guess. They all were pretty strong." Xander said, "I've fought those types of demons before. They're not naturally that strong."

"We can go now. Maybe we can go seek medical attention perhaps?" Chris said impatiently.

"Sorry about your bar, Willy." Xander said, "We owe you." Willy shrugged.

"Hey, I came out of this with my life. We're good." He said.

"We can leave now!" Chris screamed. They turned to Chris. Xander had a smile on his face.

"Oh, right, you got hurt, didn't you?" he joked. Chris rolled his eyes and mimicked him. Buffy sighed.

"You are so immature, you know that Chris?" she said. Chris nodded, and Xander turned to Buffy, an eyebrow.

"Like you're any better?" he said. Buffy looked at him appalled, as he continued to speak, "I mean, since we got here, you've been acting just as bad as Chris. And you can't deny it."

"Yes I can." She stuck her tongue out at him. Chris leaned in closer to her, to whisper, "You just proved his point." Buffy went stiff, and tried to act mature. She just ended up looking really pathetic. They started to walk out of the bar. Chris was reloading his gun, and then he started to examine his wound. He glanced at Buffy and then motioned towards her eye.

"Black eye." He stated. Buffy touched near her eye. It hurt a little, not enough to make a big deal about. And anyway, her Slayer healing abilities would fix it soon. She wasn't worried about it. She didn't have any serious injuries. She looked at Xander, seeing if he was hurt. He looked fine, but then she noticed he was limping slightly. She figured he had gotten hurt, but- being Xander-, didn't want anyone to worry about it. Chris hadn't noticed. Or if he had, he didn't care.

"I wonder if Faith and Andarnis found anything?" Xander thought out loud.

***

"Hello? Anyone here?"Andarnis called out as he and Faith walked into the old Mayor's building. It didn't look as if had been used for anything in a long time. But Faith knew that some of the Mayor's old… associates still came here.

"Smells like someone's been partying," Andarnis said, "I smell the blood." Faith looked around the room. She couldn't see anyone there.

"I say we check out the Boss's office." She suggested. Andarnis looked at her oddly.

"You still call him that?" he noticed. Faith shrugged.

"Habit." She walked up the stairs to the room where the Mayor's office used to be. She felt strange. In one way, it was like coming home. But in another, she felt like she had no place being there. She looked around the room. The office was a mess, dust and cobwebs covering everything. Faith couldn't help but laugh.

"What's up?" Andarnis asked.

"Just that the Boss would have a heart attack if he ever saw this much dirt here." Andarnis rolled his eyes. Sometimes , he really didn't get Faith. This was one of those times.

But Andarnis wasn't one of those types of people- or one of those vampires- that took the time to figure people out. It took too long. Figuring out people was Chris and Leijah's job.

"Yo, check this out." Andarnis said, opening a door. As he walked into the room, his mouth almost started to water. The walls were practically dripping in blood- fresh blood. He bit his lip, trying to not go vamp face.

He failed. Miserably.

"Can I eat after this?" he mumbled. Faith glared at him. Faith looked through the room. Now, she had seen a lot of blood, had been the cause of a lot of it, but this made her sick to her stomach. The walls looked as if it had been painted in blood. The victims laid dead on the floor, some just drained, others brutally ripped apart. Andarnis looked around, vamp faced and wide eyed, as if he was in a vampire's heaven. Which, Faith realized, he probably was.

"Chris and Spike are gonna _freak_ when they realized what they missed." Andarnis said, still in awe of the room's 'artwork'. It had been a long time since he had even heard of any vamps doing damage like this- last time, he remembered, it had been Angelus. Faith slapped him over the head.

"Focus, Andy." She said. Andarnis nodded, trying to get serious. They both looked around the room, trying to look for a clue to who had done this. Faith was in shock. Who would have done this? She got her answer as she looked at one of the walls.

In large, bloody letters, was written, "FOR HIS LORDSHIP!!!!" Faith looked at it for a moment, and then left the room to hurl. Andarnis stared at the wall until she came back. Then he turned to her, unvamped.

"Even that's too twisted for me." Andarnis said, "Chris would call it tacky… I just think that you have to be really bored to write in blood." Faith looked at Andarnis, pale.

"Can we go now?" Faith muttered weakly. Andarnis nodded.

"Sure, we're done here." Andarnis. He walked out the room, Faith behind him.

"Great." Faith said, "Watch us be the only ones that found something like this." Andarnis put on a twisted grin.

"We'd be the lucky ones." Andarnis reasoned.

"I hate vampire reason." Faith said. Andarnis just smiled. And they left- through the sewers of course.

***

"I miss Chris." Rachel groaned, for the millionth time that day. Leijah and Willow looked at each other, rolling their eyes. They were researching- at least, Giles, Willow, and Leijah were. Rachel had a book open, but she was constantly talking about Chris. About how much she missed Chris. About whether or not he was thinking about her. It was slightly sickening.

Okay, so not just slightly. It was extremely sickening.

Spike and Tara were sitting on the steps, looking through some books that Spike had brought over. They were doing what they were supposed to be doing- getting the ceremony together. They needed to get supplies, and figure out how to keep people from interrupting the spell. Which wasn't easy, since the spell tended to draw people's attention. They were trying to ignore Rachel, but it was getting harder.

She was even starting to annoy Willow.

"Look, Rach," Leijah said, "As much as we care about you and Chris's relationship, this isn't a good time to talk about it. We have more important things to do." Rachel looked confused for a moment. She honestly didn't know what could be more important than something involving her. Then she just looked annoyed.

"They've been living with that Hellmouth forever now. I think they can wait a few minutes longer as I talk."

"She's a little…" Willow whispered to Leijah.

"Full of herself? I know she has an 'I rule the world' complex, but don't worry about it. You get used to it…eventually. Anyway, she's a pyrokinetic, and we can't get visibly annoyed or she starts lighting things on fire." Leijah smiled, "But luckily, she doesn't realize when Chris insults her, so he basically says everything that we all want to say." Willow nodded, a confused smile on her face.

"What?" Rachel said, "Chris?" Leijah smiled, sickeningly sweet.

"Nothing dear. Just keep researching." Rachel shrugged, and continued to look at the book she had open- while talking about Chris.

There was a knock on the door. Rachel jumped up hopefully, dropping her book to the floor, and ran to the door. She opened it, and then groaned.

"Oh, it's just you two." She said, and then she turned to the others, "It's not Chris." Leijah and Spike looked at each other, trying not to laugh. Andarnis and Faith walked into the room, and Faith was looking noticeable paler than usual. She looked sick, almost.

"What the bloody hell's the matter with you, Faith?" Spike asked, "You look like…well, you look bad."

"Massacre. At the Mayor's place. Brutal, even by my standards, although Chris might have appreciated it. A piece of work" Andarnis said. Spike looked impressed.

"It was done by one of the followers of the Power Demon." Faith explained, as she sat down. Willow went and got her a can of soda. Faith took the can gratefully. Andarnis watched her, making sure she was fine. At first, Willow and Tara thought it was slightly strange how he paid so much attention to her. But then it became obvious that he was protecting her like a brother.

"It was practically painted in blood." Andarnis said, "I would have been in heaven, but then I remembered that blood covered walls are a bad thing." Spike laughed, but was quickly silenced by the glares he received by the rest of the group.

"So, was it like really, really bad, like attacked and stuff? Or did it seem like a ritual, and you got the aftermath?" Willow asked.

"It would appear," Giles interrupted, "that it was a message. Possibly for you and the other Hunters." Andarnis, Faith, Leijah, and Spike all looked at each other. Rachel was pleasantly oblivious to all things that didn't revolve around her and Chris.

"I hope Chris is alright." She said absent mindedly. Spike looked like he was about to say something not exactly nice to her, but a look from Leijah silenced him before the words left his mouth. They all looked at each other. There was real trouble- and for once, it wasn't the Hunters' faults. 

Another knock jolted out them all out of their deep thoughts. Rachel was too busy thinking about Chris to realize it this time, so Andarnis went to the door. He opened it, and there stood Chris, Buffy, and Xander. He looked at them for a second blankly, almost as if he was annoyed that they were there. Then he looked at Buffy's healing black eye, Chris's arm, and Xander's obvious limp. A huge smile planted itself on his face.

"I got to see a room painted in blood." He said happily to Chris.

"Not fair!" Chris pouted. Buffy and Xander looked at each other and sighed. They walked in as Buffy realized she was rapidly getting used to Chris's sadistic nature. She still hated it, but she wasn't getting sick in her stomach anymore. She wasn't sure whether this was a good thing, or a bad thing.

"Chris-y poo!" Rachel squealed, getting up and going to give Chris the tightest hug known to all mankind. She was balantly oblivious to Chris's arm wound, and Chris was getting pretty annoyed, although Rachel couldn't tell. Buffy had a smirk on her face, and Chris responded by lip-synching, "You say _anything_ you die.". Buffy wasn't quite sure whether he was serious or not.

"Get the hell off me." He said. Rachel peeled herself off of him. He glanced at her, then at his arm. Rachel followed his gaze and then her face instantly fell.

"Oh, Chris, you're hurt!" she cried, trying to examine his arm. He pulled it away.

"I think that the witches are better at healing than you, Rach." Chris growled. Leijah walked over to him and started to examine his arm. Willow went to look at Xander's leg. Buffy sat down awkwardly. She asked Spike, under her breath, about Chris and Rachel.

"He's an insomniac, and she's the only girl that doesn't have a shagging partner." He explained. Buffy nodded, not sure which one of them she felt sorry for: Rachel or Chris. She decided that not even Rachel deserved to be stuck with a bastard like Chris.

"We got attacked by a bunch of Tallanger's Cult demons." Chris told everyone, "And it looks like they were given extra power by that stupid Power Demon."

"And why didn't you mention this when we were back here?" Xander asked. Chris shrugged.

"What would have been the point?" Chris said.

"Tallanger's Cult?" Giles echoed, "That's very odd. They're not very discreet. They must have just come into town, then. We certainly would have come against them before."

"Wait." Willow said, "The Power Demon can give other demons more power?" Xander nodded.

"It's a telepath. As long as it's able to get into a demon's mind, it can do whatever the hell it wants." Xander explained. Spike and Andarnis looked at each other.

"Can Andarnis and I go back to the Mayor's place to…do further investigations?" Spike asked.

"Hey," Chris protested, "If you're going, I'm going."

"Can none of us go back, and we just think about what the Power Demon could achieve by doing that to the room?" Leijah snapped. Spike, Andarnis, and Chris had the sense to at least pretend to be slightly ashamed of themselves. Leijah smiled at them.

"So, new plan?" Tara asked, "Like knowing where the Power Demon is and destroying it?" Andarnis glance at her.

"You know, if we had our contacts from New York, this would go a lot easier." He noticed.

"But we don't now, do we?" Xander snapped, "But I have an idea."

"Ooo, do tell." Buffy said.

"Well, Willy said that the Power Demon fed off of vamps, right? So, what if we gave him a free meal?" All eyes turned to Andarnis and Spike. They looked at everyone as if they were crazy.

"No bloody way." Spike said. Andarnis just crossed his arms and glared at them. He wasn't about to end his undead life for this. 

"Andy, Spike." Faith purred, "Please? We'd all be _really_ grateful." A small, jealous noise escaped Xander's throat, but Faith glanced at him and he was quiet. Spike and Andarnis growled at her angrily.

"Spike," Buffy said, "Just do it. If you die, there won't be that much of a loss." Spike was about to jump up and try to attack her, but Faith and Leijah held him down. Buffy smiled at him. Chris had his eyebrow raised. Then he just lookedsick.

"Dear Lord," he said, "I agree with the Slayer." Buffy glared at him. Everyone laughed uneasily. They all realized what they were up against at this point. At least, they all thought they did.

_Thought_ they did.


	3. "The Moments Before the First Storm

PART FIVE: THE MOMENTS BEFORE THE FIRST STORM

Leijah laid besides Spike. He had a cigarette in his mouth, and an arm wrapped around her. She was laying on his bare chest, trying to ignore the smoke that was filling the room. She sighed loudly.

"Spike, do you mind?"

"Well, sorry pet, but I'm just a bit worried about acting like bait."

"Come on, Spike, it's not that bad." Leijah sat up, "You're going to have us backing you up."

"that's the bloody problem. I don't trust Chris, Buffy, or Anya to do anything. Or that bloody Watcher. They have it out for me. And the Lady won't let me do a bloody thing to them."

"Those were her orders?"

"According to Andy. We can't even touch them."

"Well, she must have her reasons."

"Yeah, and I know what they are."

***

"M'lady?" Xander said as he and Faith entered her room. The Lady sat on the windowsill, looking out the window. She turned to them, and pushed back a strand of long brown hair. She was dressed in dark jeans and a flowered shirt. She smiled.

"Xander. Faith. Hi. Is everything alright?"

"As well as can be expected." Xander shrugged.

"I mean, Andarnis and Spike aren't exactly happy about being handed over to the Power Demon. And B doesn't trust us." Faith added. The Lady looked sad.

"Is Giles..?" she asked sadly.

"He's Watcher guy." Xander grinned, "And Willow's there, with her girlfriend, and my ex is there, but Buffy's boyfriend isn't."

"Of course. It's sad, but, he had…an accident."

"I never liked him, but whatever happened, he probably didn't deserve it." Xander mumbled.

"You'd be surprised." The Lady said, "The Powers That Be said some very interesting things about his death." Faith raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

"Like, a gruesome death? Wicked Cool."

"Well, just make sure they're prepared for the Closing. It'll be hell." The Lady looked pointedly at Xander, "We wouldn't want anyone getting hurt this time."

"Should we call in Deadboy's Gang?" Faith asked, using Xander's nickname for Angel.

"Not yet. No need to bring them in before we really need them." The Lady answered, "Beside, they have Cordelia. When they need to come, they'll be sent a vision."

***

Buffy stood in front of Giles and Chris, sword in hand. She had a huge frown on her face.

"Whatta mean, you don't have time to train, Giles?" she whined, "But-but- we're about to fight a huge demon. I need to be prepared." Giles removed his glasses, sighing.

"Yes, you do Buffy." He nodded, "But I need to look over the Ritual for the Closing, and I need to research this Power Demon. Learn it's weaknesses."

"The other's can do that. Chris can do that."

"I need to get ready to Close the Hellmouth, Slayer." Chris said dully.

"Why don't you to train?" Tara suggested from her seat, "I mean, you're-re both good fighters and all." Buffy looked at Chris, bored.

"Do you know how to use a sword?" Buffy asked. Chris glared at her and answered, "Of course." Buffy tossed him Giles's sword. He caught it with his left hand, but switched it to his right. He examined it, and then glanced over at Buffy's sword. Hers was decorated- into the handle was carved a dragon, eating its own tail. Giles's was bare, and slightly slimmer.

"Are you planning to start anytime soon?" Buffy snapped. Chris smiled.

"Waiting for you, doll, waiting for you." He said cruelly. Buffy narrowed her eyes as she watched him. His eyes were nearly void of any emotion- and what emotion was there, it was disattached amusement.

And then he attacked.

***

Willow knocked on the door to Anya's apartment. She didn't answer. She knocked again. Anya came to the door, a robe on, and her hair was messed up.

"Go away." She said, "I have a guy here." When Willow didn't move she said, "Go away!"

"We were supposed to meet, remember? To get ready to patrol. With Spike and Andy?" Willow said. Anya sighed. She turned her back to Willow.

"We have to patrol tonight!" She shouted, "You didn't tell me there was patrolling!" Willow looked inside, her confusion evident. Andarnis walked up from behind Anya, wearing his jeans. He smiled at Willow.

"We got bored." He explained to her.

"We're patrolling now?" Anya asked, still angry. Andarnis nodded. Anya went back to her room and slammed her door. Andarnis opened the door for Willow so she could walk in. He grabbed his shirt from the couch and pulled it on.

"So, you and Anya?" Willow stuttered, "Together? That's…fast."

"No relationship. I told you, we both were bored. So I came back to her apartment." He looked towards the bedroom door to make sure it was closed before continuing, "Besides, she has a very…Rachel like quality that I can't put my finger on. It's too weird to work. How did Xander deal with her, anyway? She's all, you have to come to bed every two seconds."

"Hey, she's my friend. I'm not allowed to talk about that." Willow reminded him. Andarnis shrugged. He sat down on the couch and looked at Willow as they realized that they had an uncomfortable silence thing going on. Willow picked up a copy of Teen magazine on the table and started to flip through it.

"What's taking her so long?" Andarnis asked, slightly annoyed. Willow shrugged.

Anya finally came out of her room, dressed in bellbottoms and a blue long-sleeved shirt.

"Ready!"

***

"Do you have to leave now, Spike?" Leijah said.

"I have to go on bloody patrol." He growled, hurriedly putting on his boots. Leijah smiled.

"Be nice to Willow and Anya."

"I don't have a problem with Red. It's the ex-demon I have problem with." He snapped, "Where the bloody 'ell are my cigarettes?" Leijah lifted the pack of cigarettes off the floor and handed them to him.

"You definitely need to quit for good." Leijah noted, "I mean, all a demon would have to do is wave them in your face and you would crumble." Spike glared at her. Leijah raised an eyebrow. Spike stood up, pulling his shirt over his head. Then he grabbed his duster from over one of his chairs.

"I'm gone." He said.

"Bye. Be careful." Leijah said sincerely. He glance back at her, before going over to give her a soft kiss on the lips.

"Later, pet." He said. She smiled. He walked out the room, closing the door behind him. She sat on the bed, sighing.

"_Please_ be careful."

***

The Lady turned to look out the window again as Xander and Faith left. She let out a long breath, and glanced down at a picture in her hands.

It was a crumpled picture of Buffy's Watcher. Giles had a soft smile curling his lips, and his eyes looked happy. She missed him so much. She only put the picture down when she realized that her tears were starting to hit the picture.

She stood, stretching, and then walked over to her mirror. Her dark brown eyes looked tired, and her pale skin did not help to disagree with them. Goddess, she was so tired. How long had it been since she had slept soundly? She couldn't remember. But it was all right. Because she was protecting her 'Children'.

But she knew that soon, her sleep would get worse. That soon she would have to see Giles again. And what would happen then? She knew that he had a girlfriend after her. She didn't know if they were still together or not. But it didn't matter to her. She just needed to see him. To give him this last gift. So she could finally sleep in peace.

For the last time.

***

Chris's sword clashed with Buffy's for what seemed like the millionth time. His eyes never stopped staring at hers, and she felt it was unnerving to watch as he never even looked at her sword, but still managed to dodge every attack she made. He was good. Too good. Buffy felt as if she was fighting Angelus all over again, and not just because of the skill. Something about the look in his eyes told her that this wasn't just practice to him. This was a fight- a competetion- and he wasn't going to stop. So she was going to keep protecting herself.

Simple as that

Chris felt her alarm inside his mind. This was good. He could feel the demon in him rising, pushing every part of him to the limit of his fighting ability. It was more of a rush than fighting the demons the other day. He was having a blast.

And he wanted to see how far she was going to let him take this.

Simple as that.

***

Anya trailed after Andarnis and Willow. She was upset- Andarnis had been pretty good in bed, and he was ignoring her. He and Willow seemed to get along well. They were exchanging Xander stories. And laughing their heads off.

"Oooo…" Willow was saying, "And this one time, he tried to fix this tazer, and got all electrocuted…"

"There was the time that he tried to flirt with Leijah, and he was dragged by his legs out of the room by Faith and Spike…"

"Or him making all the girls in Sunnydale fall in love with him…"

"Him and Spike singing highlights from 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show'…" They fell in a fit of laughter from that image. Anya made a sound of annoyance. They turned to her, as if they had forgotten she was there. Which they had. Her glare was enough to silence them.

"Patrolling." She reminded them, "If you're not going to talk to me, stop talking." Andarnis turned to Willow, shrugging. Willow sighed, tapping her stake against the palm of her hand.

"Where's Spike?" she asked.

"He's on his way, I guess." Andarnis said.

He just prayed that Spike was letting someone else drive.

***

Spike had the cigarette in his left hand, and his right hand on the wheel. A stupid thought crossed his mind: He was going really fast. It wasn't that he cared about the speed, about the fact that if he kept going as fast as he was and he hit someone, not even the fact that he was a vampire was going to save him.

He wanted to have some fun before his suicide mission, afterall.

After searching the radio for a good song for a solid fifteen minutes, he shut it off angrily. Bloody 'ell/ He really didn't want this ride to end. As he thought about it, he could keep driving, passing the sign to Sunnydale- carefully _avoiding_ the Welcome sign. It would be him, on his own.

But then Spike started to really think. As much as the whole good guy thing annoyed him, he kind of enjoyed what he was doing now. Mocking Chris and Xander was a lot of fun. And Andarnis had known Angelus- they insulted him a lot. And for the first time since Drusilla left him- or he left her, whichever way you wanted to look at it- he wasn't thinking of her constantly. He had Leijah now, and she was all Dru was to him…and she was sane, which happened to be a major bonus in the relationship.

He cursed loudly as he started to drive in the direction of the cemetery. He was stuck with them now, because of the simple fact that this was where he belonged right now.

Bloody hell, he really hated life sometimes.

***

"Xander?"

"What's the up, Faith?" Xander answered her as he put a loving arm around her shoulder. Faith looked down.

:Do you think that maybe I should have stayed in New York? You know, with Maria and the others?" Xander looked at her, shocked that she could think something like that. Shocked that _his_ Faith, the most important person in his life, was suggesting that maybe she shouldn't be with him then.

"No, of course not, why the hell would you think that?" he asked as Faith shrugged.

"Because everytime B looks at me, or Willow does, or Giles- or even Tara looks, it hurts. Geez, it's been years. Nearly four years since I left. It shouldn't still hurt. I've done what I was supposed to didn't I? I'm one of the white hats, I've turned my back on the dark side- I'm even helping B out. What else is there, Xander? What else am I supposed to do?"

"I'm not the one to ask." Xander admitted, "But if you want to know what I think, I think it's always gonna hurt- that's just the way we work and junk. It sucks, but I would get worried if seeing them _didn't _hurt." Faith leaned on Xander. She hated the truth, she really did. It was so much easier when she had been evil- when she had been able to just be blind to the truth. When she didn't have to admit to herself that she was scared. She guessed it was partly Xander's fault. He had an annoying ability to make people realize things- whether it be that they needed a laugh, or that they needed to step back and look at themselves. But that was why she needed him. He brought out all the feelings she had hidden from herself.

"I hate you when you tell me the truth." She told him, a pout on her face.

"That's what I'm here for."

"I know, Xand. I know."

***

Buffy was getting tired. She wasn't quite sure how long she and Chris had been fighting anymore, and personally, she didn't care. She could see that he was enjoying himself- and as much as she hated to admit it, so was she. A practice match between her and Giles would have ended to quickly. But Chris, he was a challenge. He was equal to her in strength, speed, and skill.

But that did not mean she didn't want to stop the fight _immediately_. 

"Chris-" she gasped. They both continued to fight. They were aware that Tara, Rachel and Giles were watching them in awe at this point.

"Yup?" Chris panted. He was starting to get tired also.

"Ready to stop?"

"You quitting?"

"I am not quitting. It's just this is pointless because we both are dead even. We can stop, have a soda, and get back to this later when I can beat you without worrying about not being able to close the Hellmouth." They both stopped, at the exact same time. Chris and Buffy were both sweating and breathing hard. Buffy tried not to notice the fact that his grey T-shirt was completely soaked through with sweat, and she could see his muscles clearly. It wasn't that she was attracted to him- but, she reasoned, when something that looks that… well, _good_ is in front of you, it's hard not to pay attention.

Chris grinned, trying to ignore two things. First of all, Buffy's thoughts were floating into his head, and he was trying to act as if he didn't know that she was checking him out.

Also, he didn't want to realize that he was checking her out as well.

"So then," Chris said, a smile on his face, "You really think that you're going to beat me next time?"

"Of course." Buffy said, forcing herself to look away from his chest and into his face, "I think that's pretty obvious. After all, I am the Slayer."

"And you are so full of yourself." Chris snapped. Buffy feigned hurt.

"Oh, and you aren't?" she retorted. Giles quickly stepped in between the two, holding his hands up to stop them from fighting anymore. They had already broken one lamp- Giles wanted to keep the rest of his house intact.

"That will be enough." Giles looked at Buffy, "I assume that you are satisfied withyour training session?" Buffy looked annoyed for a moment- did she really want to give Chris the satisfaction of telling him that she enjoyed the session? No, she really didn't. 

"It'll do." She sighed. Chris snorted as he put the sword on the table. Buffy did the same, and then sat on Giles's desk. That was when she realized that she was sitting where his lamp used to be. She frowned awkwardly at Giles.

"Sorry, Giles." She apologized. Giles nodded. Then everyone turned to Chris, waiting for his apology. He looked back at them, his face as innocent as a sadistic killer's face _could_ get (which, amazingly, is pretty innocent sometimes).

"What do ya want _me_ to say?" he asked. Buffy threw up her hands in defeat.

God, Chris was impossible.

***

Andarnis heard the engine of Spike's car about a block before it got close to them. So when Spike walked into the cemetery, cigarette in hand, he and Willow were already hiding behind a crypt. Anya was somewhere else in the graveyard- she had walked off in a huff after seeing that she wasn't really being paid attention to. Andarnis almost felt sorry for her- she was one of those people who obviously craved attention. He knew a few like that. Of course, most of the people he knew that wanted attention reverted to ripping people's heads off- like Chris and Spike.

"Where the bloody 'ell are they?" Spike mumbled to himself angrily. Andarnis looked atWillow and grinned.

"At the count of three, you're gonna scream your head off, 'kay?" Andarnis whispered to her. Willow nodded, realizing that they were about to play a prank on Spike.

"One…" Andarnis whispered in her ear, "two…three." Andarnis jumped back as Willow screamed at the top of her lungs. Which was pretty loud.

"Help!" she yelled, trying hard not to laugh. They watched as Spike jumped. He looked completely freaked out.

"That was Red…" Spike groaned, "Xander's gonna have my bloody hesd..!" He looked around, trying to figure out where the screams were coming from. He ran towards the crypt where Andarnis and Willow were hiding.

Of course, when he got there, the two pranksters fell into a fit of hysterical laughter at Spike's expression. He was quickly getting pissed. His fists were clenched at his sides and he had a steady growl going.

"Andy, I'm going to _kill_ you. I am going to chop off your head and then throw you out into the bloody sun." he said through clenched teeth. Andarnis finally stopped laughing enough to talk to Spike.

"What's the problem? It was funny." He said. Willow nodded, still laughing. Spike glared at her.

"Now, when you're _really_ in trouble, and I don't come, you won't bloody need to wonder why."

"I'm sorry, Spike. It was Andy's idea." Willow apologized.

"I know." Spike responded.

"I'm not sorry." Andarnis said happily. Spike rolled his eyes as he said, "Don't worry, I'll get you back. In the meantime, let's patrol." Willow and Andarnis nodded in agreement. They walked around the graveyard slowly, Andarnis and Willow looking for vamps, and Spike muttering angrily to himself. Willow grinned slightly as she listened to him.

It was actually quite amusing.

***

Xander was lying down on the couch, watching repeats of old Saturday Night Lives when Christopher entered the factory where they were all staying. Chris dropped himself into a chair and leaned back. Xander looked at him, eyebrow raised. Something was bothering him.

"What's up, Chris. Been fighting?" Xander asked.

"Yup. The Slayer." Chris stated, and then turned to face the TV.

"I hate her." He stated.

"Who? Rosie O'Donnel? I admit, she's not the funniest person out there, but she doesn't deserve all that…"

"No, stupid. I'm talking about the Slayer."

"Buffy?" Xander asked sitting up, "What did you two do?"

"Nothing, just a training fight. But she thinks she's so superior to everyone…I swear, I'm going to kill her one of these days."

"Look, she's just not used to the way things work now. She thinks of slaying as nothing but a job, something that she just as to deal with. She's not used to it being looked at like a game, and it makes her uneasy. Last time she knew someone who thought of it as 'fun', it was Faith." Xander explained, "She's had bad experiences with Faith and Spike, and I guess I put her through some junk too, when I first left. And the fact that you've made it balatantly obvious that you enjoy the kill doesn't help."

"She needs to loosen up." Chris stated. Xander smirked and leaned back on the couch, putting his arms behind his head casually.

"Maybe you're right. I can't remember having ever really played any practical jokes on her, and I'm the only one who would have _ever_ done anything like that to her. Ever." Chris raised an eyebrow.

"Are you proposing that _we_ loosen her up?"

"With the help of Andy, of course."

"But of course. Have to let Andy in on it. He would kill us if we didn't." Chris stated, "Would she appreciate being soaked in water?" Xander frowned.

"Chris, get real. Water? Come on, we need something slightly funnier than water." They sat in silence for a minute. Chris's eyes lit up.

"I got it." He said, and Xander leaned in closer, "So here's what we're gonna do…"


End file.
